


secrets and snapdragons

by thebeanunderthecorner



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop & Tattoo Parlor, But they're already friends, Campaign: Graduation (The Adventure Zone), Florist!Fitzroy, Flowers, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda ASOUE based, Language of Flowers, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Role Reversal, Secret Organizations, Secrets, Tattoo Artist!Argo, The Unbroken Chain, VFD almost, chapter a day
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:40:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29279355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebeanunderthecorner/pseuds/thebeanunderthecorner
Summary: Argonaut Keene has been getting mysterious bouquets of flowers left at his apartment. Fitzroy Maplecourt just wants to help.-----Self-imposed 14-day challenge with random prompts
Relationships: Argo Keene/Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	1. Day One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based on the prompt "the language of flowers, pyjamas, a secret passageway" from Eva Deverell's 30 Day writing prompt list

Argonaut Keene was a man of many talents, but interpreting flowers was not one of them. Sure, he knew what some of them were, but never bothered to learn about the fabled language of flowers. So, when his friend saw the bouquet on his table and made a comment on it, he was shocked.

“What’s going on with a secret passageway at midnight?” Fitzroy Maplecourt, Argo’s best friend, asked.

Argo’s eyes grew wide.

“I don’t know! I’ve just been receiving these bouquets with random flowers in them from time to time, and I don’t even know what for!” he explained. “They just show up at my door and they’re all different and I think I’m going crazy! I have so many old bouquets hang-drying because I can’t bear to toss these beautiful flowers, but I can’t go on like this!”

Fitzroy’s eyes lit up. “May I see them?” he asked. 

Argo nodded and motioned for him to follow, leading him through the apartment to his room. He opened the door and Fitzroy gasped. The ceiling had tons of bunches of flowers hanging from it, in various stages of beautiful decay, and Fitzroy had to duck his head to enter.

"Wooooow. This is a lot," he said. He started looking at a couple of the bunches, analyzing them with the care of a practiced botanist. Where he got those skills, Argo didn't know, but he was glad his friend had them. 

"These are a lot of odd messages, like, codes within codes kinda stuff, but most of them have the same undertone, and that's that it's a secret."

"A secret? Like, secret organizations and shit?" 

"Yes, like secret organizations and… stuff," Fitzroy confirmed. 

"Dude, where'd you learn all this? I don't even know what most of these are!" Argo said, amazed. 

"Dude. I'm a florist. You know this," Fitzroy deadpanned. "You literally pass my work every day on the way to yours."

Argo felt stupid. 

Of course he knew where Fitzroy worked. It's literally right next to his tattoo parlor. 

"Shit. I knew that. Sorry. But how did you know about the secret stuff if people really only come in for, like, apology and condolences arrangements?" he asked. 

"Can't a man have hobbies?" Fitzroy asked back, teasing in his voice. "But, seriously. What are we going to do with the whole 'secret passage at midnight' thing?" 

"Since when is this a 'we' thing?" Argo looked at Fitzroy, surprised at his friend’s sudden wish to be involved.

“Since you asked for my help with something you clearly know nothing about,” came his answer.

“Okay, then. We’ll figure something out.”

...

Night fell, and the time for bed was long gone when Argo was awoken by his doorbell ringing incessantly. He stumbled out of bed in a hurry, not caring that he was in his pajamas, which were really just a pair of sweatpants and, occasionally, a tee shirt. But it was too hot for a shirt on this particular night, a fact Argonaut Keene forgot when he went to go answer the door.

“What’s going on?” he asked as he threw open the door. “Oh, it’s you!”

Fitzroy stood across from Argo, checking the messenger bag hanging at his side, then freezing as he looked up and saw his friend standing in the doorway, shirtless.

“Oh, uh, hi, Argo! Ready to go track down whatever secret organization keeps sending you flowers?” the bespectacled man asked.

“Right! That! Totally forgot about that!” 

Argo hadn’t forgotten. He’d hoped Fitzroy would forget and let him deal with this by himself. 

“Well… Let’s go! I know where this place is and it’s almost midnight!” Fitzroy exclaimed. Argo started to head out the door, but Fitzroy stopped him with a hand to the chest. “But first, you need shoes, your keys, and, most importantly, a shirt.”

Argo’s whole body nearly buzzed at the brief point of contact between him and Fitzroy, and he immediately turned with an “Oh, right,” to disappear back into his apartment. Returning a minute later, he had on shoes and a tank top that only served to render Fitzroy speechless. He smiled at the other man and stepped out into the hallway, shutting the door behind him. He locked the door and turned back around to his friend.

He smiled.

“Okay. You ready?”


	2. Day Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt - "Bump"

Argo and Fitzroy made their way down to the street before daring to speak again. 

“So, where are we going, Fitz?” 

“It’s Fitzroy, and we’re going down to the old warehouse on 7th and Valerian. But we have to hurry. We only have about half an hour til midnight,” Fitzroy explained.

“Got it,” Argo confirmed as he started walking towards 7th Street. Fitzroy followed behind. 

…

Twenty minutes later, they were almost at the warehouse when Fitzroy made Argo stop. He turned to the shorter man, looking worried.

“What is it, Fitz?” Argo asked.

“Argo, I’m getting a bad feeling about this,” his friend said

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, we don’t know who keeps sending these things and why, and just walking in just doesn’t sound like a good idea.”

“Hold up. You were excited to do this!” Argo hissed. “I wasn’t even going to do anything about it! I just want it to stop!”

Warm August air blew between them, making the two of them very conscious of their location.

“Hey! You wouldn’t have known what the flowers were if it weren’t for me! And I believe that showing up to this thing is a good way to get them to stop showing up at your door. Is it an idea? Yes! Is it a good idea? Heck no! We don’t know what we’re getting into, so excuse me for being hesitant to just rush into this!” Fitzroy explained, gesturing wildly. “But I’m doing this because we’re friends and you really shouldn’t be alone out here in the middle of the night. It’s dangerous.”

He then continued forward.

Argo had no choice but to follow.

They got into the warehouse and the two young men looked around for a second, taking in the scenery and trying to find where a secret passageway could be. Argo spotted it first. There was a small lever in the corner of the warehouse, near a shelving unit that seemed out of place.

“Fitz! I found it!” he called across the room. Fitzroy came running over, his bag bumping against his leg at every step. 

Argo pulled the lever and the shelving unit peeled away from the wall to reveal a hidden hallway with stairs leading down. They took a breath in tandem and plunged forward into the dark side by side. It was narrow, so their arms would bump into the walls, and sometimes they would bump into each other, but if it was bothersome, neither man said anything.

They reached the end of the staircase and came upon a door.

“Do we open it?” Argo asked cautiously.

“I don’t see why not,” Fitzroy answered, just as nervous as his friend behind him.

They reached for the door knob, but before they could open the door, a blow to the head knocked each of the men unconscious.


	3. Day Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt - "Memory"

Argo came to and found he couldn't move his arms. Nor could he move his legs. A struggling sound next to him alerted him of the presence of someone to his right. He turned his head and saw Fitzroy trying to get out of his bonds. It suddenly occurred to him that they were tied to chairs, which were kind of uncomfortable now that he thought about it. 

"Pssst. Fitzroy…" Argo whispered. 

Fitzroy halted his escape efforts. 

"What?" he answered. 

"I think we might have found the place we were looking for." 

Just then, a figure walked into the room, followed by three more figures, all cloaked in black hooded capes. 

"Welcome, Argonaut Keene. Welcome, Argonaut's friend," the first figure said. "You have found our hideout. You are the great mind we always knew you were." 

"Hold up," Argo interjected. "I didn't do this on my own. My friend here helped," he said, nodding towards Fitzroy. "He's the one who solved the puzzle. Really. Not me."

"Oh ho! Another genius is in our midst. Name yourself, friend of Argonaut."

"Uhm… My name? It's Fitzroy Maplecourt, and I just know flowers. That's all," Fitzroy admitted. 

"Why are you here, Fitzroy? Our messages were only for Argonaut Keene, not one Fitzroy Maplecourt." Their voice sounded sinister, with a little bit of curiosity thrown in there. 

"I, uh, decoded the flowers, and Argo really shouldn't be here alone, especially not this late, in this neighborhood. I'm a… protector… of sorts." Fitzroy's answer was only most of the truth. He didn't tell them how he was curious about this secret organization that seemed to primarily communicate via flowers, nor that his puzzle-solving skills went deeper than floral arrangements. And he definitely had no need to tell them that he had no idea how to fight them off if it came to that. Sure, he looked strong, but that was all genetics. 

"You may want to be here, but you do not belong," the lead figure said. "We only expected Argonaut Keene to heed the call, nothing more. You are just a nuisance. A mistake. You should not-" 

"He's not a nuisance. He's my friend," Argo interrupted. "Again, he solved the riddle, not me. I don't belong here! I'm just a tattoo artist! He's a florist! We don't belong here!" 

"Oh, but you do." 

"No, we don't. I just want to go home and sleep so I can get to work on time tomorrow. I have appointments coming in way early and if I don't get my sleep, I won't be able to do a good job, and then I'll get bad reviews, and then I'll get fired, and no one will wanna hire me, so just let me go home!" Argo was very close to an emotional breakdown and it was all because of the stupid flowers. "And I don't even know why you want me here!" 

"Your being here is very fortunate. Search your memory. Find those long forgotten secrets embedded in your mind. You will know why you're here." 

Argo wracked his brain for any sort of hidden memory, but all he got was one of being in fourth grade and getting teased for having long hair. 

"I got nothing," he responded. 

"Nothing?" The hooded figures turned to each other, whispering amongst themselves for a minute. "It seems we are mistaken." 

"Yeah, you are," Fitzroy said. 

"Argonaut, you were chosen because of the shop you work at. It's a front for a secret society that seeks to provide order in this world of chaos. We are part of this secret society. We thought you were, as well. We were wrong." 

"Hell yeah you were. I don't know jack shit about any secret societies or organizations or whatever it is you want to call yourselves," Argo shot back. "Now let me go home and sleep!" he demanded. 

Fitzroy sat back and listened to the two, his friend and the hooded figure, go back and forth, eyes wide in delight as he'd finally found what he'd been trained to seek out. He schooled his expression into one of confusion whenever they looked towards him, but on the inside, he was excited. 

"It is decided," the hooded figure said after another conference with their allies, "that you will be let go, but if at any time you wish to join us, let us know." 

"And how would we do that?" Fitzroy asked, speaking for the first time in several minutes. 

"We'll find you." 

… 

"Isn't this amazing?" Fitzroy asked, practically bouncing as if the carpet in Argo's apartment was made of rubber. "A secret organization! A real one! Yes!" 

Argo turned to him. 

"I guess, if you're into that sort of thing. I'd rather just sit in my chair and give people tattoos all day." 

"Come on, Argo," Fitzroy whined. "What if they contact us again? Do we go along with it? And, like, what if they want us to-" 

"I'm gonna stop you right there, flower boy. If they contact _me_ again, I'm just gonna leave it alone. I'm not gonna do anything about it. They're probably real dangerous anyway."

Fitzroy's face fell. 

"Oh. Well, if you put it that way…" The other man trailed off, clearly dejected, and walked to the door. "I'm just gonna go home. You're welcome, by the way." 

Without another word, Fitzroy opened the door and walked out, leaving Argo feeling like he did something wrong. He sighed and went back to bed. 

As the artist drifted off to sleep, the image of Fitzroy's pained face lingered behind his eyelids. 


	4. Day Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt - "Dizzy"

Fitzroy laid down to sleep, but, try as he might, he couldn’t. It was two-thirty in the morning when he last checked his phone, and he couldn’t fall asleep no matter what he tried. He even tried that one calming meditation app, but no dice.

Suddenly, he bolted awake to his alarm blaring in his ear.

“Crap!” he exclaimed as he checked his phone. “I’m late!”

Fitzroy hurried to get ready for work, just barely making it out the door with a toaster waffle in hand. It was a poor substitute for a crepe, but it was breakfast, so he took it and ran to work. Clocking in just five minutes before he was due to be there, he rushed to pull his apron on and get behind the counter.

“Hey, Fitzroy! You seem rushed today,” his coworker, Rainer, said in lieu of greeting. 

“Yeah, a bit,” he replied, taking his first real deep breath since he walked in. “Had a late night. Almost overslept.”

“Oooh! A late night, huh?” Rainer waggled her eyebrows at him. “Who with? Anyone we know?”

“No! Nothing like that!” Fitzroy said defensively. “I was just helping my friend Argo with something. Things got weird and then I left.” His face fell.

“Oh. I’m sorry for asking if it hurt you to tell me that.”

“No, no, it’s fine, Rainer. It didn’t end badly. I just… left,” Fitzroy defended. “And besides, he’s never going to see me like that anyway.”

Just then, he looked at the clock, and it was right around the time that Argo would be walking by to get to his work. Like clockwork, he did, but then he stopped at the door. And then, to Fitzroy's horror, he started walking up to the door. 

"Rainer, I'm going to go get some water. To drink. For myself. You take care of him," Fitzroy whispered very hurriedly before ducking into the back room to panic. 

… 

"HI! Welcome to Festo's Flowers! My name's Rainer! How may I help you?" the girl behind the counter said cheerily. She smiled at Argo, and he could feel the stress of last night (early morning) fade away. 

"I, um, I need flowers…" the man said nervously, as if he was embarrassed to be there. "For a friend…" he amended. 

"Of course! What kind?" 

"Uhhhh… You got anything to say 'sorry' with? I don't really know a lot about flowers, forgive me," he said. 

"Sure! We have lots! But the best flower to apologize with is a rose," Rainer said. 

"No, no. No roses. It's not like that. I just, I hurt my friend's feelings and I don't want him to think that I'm mad at him or anything."

"Of course. Of course. Gotcha. Okay, um… Let me see…" The girl flicked through a catalogue for a while before landing on and staying on one page for a while. She then snapped it shut and wheeled out from behind the counter. Argo stepped aside to let her through and she motioned for him to follow. 

"So, there are several 'I'm sorry' flowers, but if you want to really be sincere about it, we have some lovely purple hyacinths in stock right now," she said, leading him to a refrigerated display case. "If you would be so kind as to grab that vase on the top shelf- no, next one over- and bring it to the counter, we can get you all sorted out." 

Argo took hold of the vase of purple flowers and suddenly became very aware of the time. 

"Um, could we possibly get this done in the next five minutes or so?" he asked. "I've gotta get to work soon or I'll be late for my first client."

"Of course! Wouldn't want you to be late," the florist said. "Now, that'll be twenty bucks. Cash or card?" she asked as she wrapped the stems and stuck the flowers in a plastic sheath. 

"Card, please." Argo swiped his debit card and was about to reach for the bouquet, but had an idea. "So… The funny thing is… Do you know someone named Fitzroy? Tall, wears glasses, works here, is kinda handsome, but in, like, a nerd way?" Rainer nodded. "Okay. Great! Could you give these to him? Please?" 

"Got it," she confirmed. 

Argo turned to leave, but froze when he heard a "Hey, Fitzroy! These are for you!" And he hurried out the door. 

… 

Meanwhile, in the back room, Fitzroy felt dizzy as he tried to fend off an anxiety attack. It wasn't that he didn't want to see Argo so early, but he didn't want to see him so soon after the awkwardness of last night. 

He took a few deep breaths to ground himself, and when that didn't work, he decided to try laying on the floor. Maybe the cool cement would be soothing. So he got on the floor and tried to shimmy under the table, but settled for lying next to it instead once he determined that his gigantic frame wouldn't fit comfortably underneath the table. 

The cool cement floor of the back room helped a little, so he didn't totally freak out when he heard Argo's voice in the shop. He took a sip from his water bottle and sat up, less dizzy, more tired, but better. He heard the bell on the door ding again, figuring Argo had left, just as he heard Rainer call out to him. 

Fitzroy scrambled to stand up and walk back out to the front of the shop. 

"Yes, Rainer?" 

"I said, these are for you," his coworker said, shoving a bunch of purple hyacinths in it into his hands. "Apparently the guy was in a rush, but he said these are for you." 

Fitzroy sighed, tightening his grip around the stems. 

Purple hyacinths. 

Sorrow. 

'I'm sorry.'

'Please forgive me.'

"Darn you, Argonaut Keene," he breathed. He turned to Rainer. "He knew I'd know what these mean, and I want to be upset at him, but that feels mean and I don't like that," he explained. 

"Oh! I forgot! He asked if I knew you, and tried describing you. It was kinda cute. He said, and I quote, 'kinda handsome, but in, like, a nerd way.' Isn't that funny?" 

Fitzroy paled, feeling dizzy again. 

Rainer laughed. 

"Rainer Michel! You can't just spring things like that on a guy!" Fitzroy sputtered, already moving back to the back room to put the flowers down by his things. 

"Hey, Rainer!" he called. "I'm going to chill out here for a bit, but if Festo comes in, tell them I don't feel well for me." 

"Got it, bud!" Rainer confirmed. 

Fitzroy sat down at the table in the back and laid his head on his arms, thinking. Totally not sleeping. Or rather, totally not trying to sleep. But when Rainer went back to check on him, he was out like a light. 


	5. Day Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt - "Temptation"

Argo returned to his apartment after work and was met with another surprise on his doorstep. Instead of the flowers of the last three weeks or so, he found a mysterious envelope taped to his door. Resisting the urge to freak out, he grabbed it and quickly went inside. 

He gently opened the envelope and out fell two small pieces of paper. One was a square bit of cardstock with a hand-drawn picture of a flower, quite similar to the ones he bought for Fitzroy earlier in the day, and the other was a slip of computer paper with odd words on it. They weren't words, per se, but he felt like they should be words based on the punctuation and groupings of letters. After wrestling with the idea of trying to solve this himself, he gave in to the temptation to call Fitzroy in for help, and picked up his phone to call his friend. 

The phone rang once before Fitzroy picked up. 

"Hey, Fitz! I've, uh, got something I think you'd like to see," Argo said. 

"What is it?" 

"It's some strange coded thing and a drawing of a flower. They were in an envelope on my door when I got home a few minutes ago." 

"Oh really?" the man on the other side of the phone asked, almost sarcastically. "It's not like the mysterious organization said they weren't going to contact u- you- again."

"Yeah, but I didn't expect it to be so soon," Argo said in defense. If Fitzroy was going to be so salty about this, he had a lot more apologizing to do before the regular Fitzroy came back. "Please help me. I have no idea what it means." 

The pleading tone in his voice must have done something to Fitzroy's resolve because no sooner than he said that Fitzroy agreed to come over. 

"Oh, and Fitz? I'm sorry about last night." 

The click on the other end of the line told Argo all he needed to know. Fitzroy was still mad at him and wasn't ready for an apology, but he was still coming over, so that had to be something. 

… 

A knock sounded from the front door and Argo rushed to get it. Opening the door, he saw a breathless Fitzroy Maplecourt, glasses askew, messenger bag in hand. 

"God, you look like you ran a marathon!" Argo exclaimed. 

"'God' is a little too formal. 'Fitzroy' is fine," the tall man panted. Argo chuckled. "Now, can I come in or are we going to do this in the hallway?" 

"Oh, right! Of course!" Argo said, getting out of the doorway so his friend could step inside. He led him to the coffee table, where he pointed to the pieces of paper. 

The writing on the slip of computer paper said "Afe cjngkvlef betpu qtcbvhu. Ugng w'pevji. Wg'ty ul dyivqaz." and Argo couldn't make head nor tail of it. 

Fitzroy picked up the drawing of the flowers and looked at the writing, examining them for a few seconds before his eyes lit up. 

"It's a cipher! Vigenere, to be precise. The words are the message and the drawing is the key!" he said excitedly. "It's a good thing I brought along ALL my cipher stuff." He rifled through his bag for a bit until he pulled out a square board covered in repetitions of the alphabet with a slider on each axis. 

"What's that?" Argo asked. It reminded him of the times tables he had on his desk at one of the elementary schools he went to. 

"It's a Vigenere cipher decoder and encrypter. You slide the thing to the letter you need on one side, and slide the other to the one you need on the other side, and where they meet is the letter you write down," Fitzroy explained. 

"O-okay… But what's with the picture?" Argo was more confused than before, to be honest. 

"It's the key. You use the letters of the name of the object as the letters for one axis while the other axis uses the letters in the message. Like this," he said, pulling out a pencil and paper. "I'll copy down the message, then write the flower name one letter at a time above each of the letters in the encrypted message. Then those'll be the coordinates."

"I think I get it," Argo said. 

He did not get it. 

Fitzroy did as he described so his page looked like this:

HYA CINTHHYAC INTHH YACINTHH. 

AFE CJNGKVLEF BETPU QTCBVHU. 

  
  


Y ACI N'THHYA. 

UGNG W'PEVJI. 

C I'NT HY ACINTHH. 

WG'TY UL DYIVQAZ.

Argo watched in awe as Fitzroy quickly started sliding the bars on his decoder thingy (he couldn't remember the name) and jotted down each letter as he went. 

"How'd you learn how to do that, Fitz?" he asked. 

Fitzroy looked up, briefly and said "As I said: hobbies," before going back to the cipher. After a few minutes, he examined his work before looking up again, straightening back up from his hunched over position. "I've got it!" 

He held his paper up and Argo took it. 

"The abandoned train station," Argo said. "Nine o'clock. We'll be waiting." Fitzroy nodded. 

"Do we go?" Fitzroy asked. "I mean, do you want to go?" he corrected, unsure if Argo still wanted him to be a part in this whole thing or if he just needed the code cracked. If he only needed a code-cracker, Fitzroy would be that for him. If he wanted someone to join him in the adventure, Fitzroy wouldn't refuse the offer. He would be glad if he got to do anything at all with Argo, no matter how small the matter. 

"I mean, we kinda have to now," Argo said. "They said they'll be waiting, and we've already gotten two of their messages figured out. Might as well continue."

"We?" Fitzroy asked, looking at his friend. 

"Uh, yeah… It only makes sense for you to get in on this, too. I don't wanna be just using you for your decoding skills," Argo assured the other man. "So, let's go."

… 

The train station always felt  _ off _ during the day, but at night, it was downright creepy. Here at the edge of Last Hope sat a train station that used to be packed with people every day but then became disused due to the advent and normalization of automobiles. It was abandoned and left in disarray, making the rundown place a good spot for delinquents, druggies, and Last Hope’s most dangerous folks to hang out. 

_ ‘Argo’s looking a little nervous,’  _ Fitzroy noticed as they approached the unofficial secret entrance. His friend was visibly showing signs of distress, but not enough to worry Fitzroy.  _ ‘He can’t be that scared.’  _

It was true.

Argo was afraid.

This was the place always spoken of in whispers and hushed tones, but if it was out of awe or out of fear, he didn’t know, and at this point, he was too afraid to ask.

  
_ ‘Well, now I’ll know for myself which one it is,’ _ he thought. 

Pushing away the temptation to flee, he pulled up a particularly worn bit of chain link fence aside so he and Fitzroy could duck inside. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, y'all! Sorry for dropping out for a few days there! Had literally no time to write after I uploaded the last chapter. I'm still doing this thing for the full fourteen days, so don't worry. This'll be more constant now.
> 
> The Vigenere cipher is my favorite cipher to use when I have the time to handwrite encrypted messages (thank you, Alex Hirsch!) so of course I had to put it in the story about secret codes and whatnot! I came up with the idea for a physical device for it while I was working and spent like two hours making a prototype of it from cardboard and clear plastic. Here's a little thing I learned, though: don't handwrite an entire alphabet grid by hand! It'll hurt your hand after a few rows. But it looks cool!
> 
> I appreciate your kudos and comments! They make my day!
> 
> And, hey, it's your choice whether or not you want to do that thing they keep pressuring you to do. Do you want them to win? Okay then.
> 
> <3 ya!


	6. Day Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt - "Choices"

The pair of friends walked up to the station’s singular building, expecting to be met with mysterious hooded figures, but instead, they were met with a note on the busted, broken door. 

Fitzroy, reaching the door first on account of his long “tall boy” legs, pulled the note from the door and read it to himself.

“What’s it say?” Argo asked from behind him.

“It says we can do one of two things: we can follow their next instruction and be fully inducted into the group, or we can ignore it and be left alone. It’s entirely our choice.” Fitzroy looked at him expectantly. 

"What?" Argo asked defensively. "I didn't choose this! I just wanna go home! I wanna stop getting weird messages! I'm going home, Fitz. If you wanna stay and do whatever they want you to, it's fine by me." 

He started heading back the way they came, not caring if there were footsteps behind him or not. This whole runaround with the secret messages and shit was exhausting. He wanted the weird out of his life for good.

“Argo! They never meant for me to be here. They wanted you, and I just came along for the ride, so I’m not going to take the offer if you aren’t. We don’t really even know what these people do. I’m not going into something like that blind. Let’s go home,” Fitzroy said.

The two of them walked back to Fitzroy’s car and returned to Argo’s apartment, not talking about the strange circumstances of the last two days. They didn't talk about anything at all, in fact. They arrived at the apartment building, and instead of staying and chatting awhile, Fitzroy watched his friend walk into the building before driving off. 

… 

Argo flopped down onto his bed and tried to sleep, but the choice given by the secret organization loomed over him. 

Join and know all the goings on, or walk away and be oblivious to their activities.

It was tempting to join, but he knew nothing about the organization and it did seem sketchy. And walking away would be much easier than having to keep secrets all his life.

He would choose in the morning.

Meanwhile, Fitzroy was sitting at his kitchen table considering his options. 

Join the secret organization like his parents had, or let them down by walking away from it all.

He knew exactly what this group was, and it was a benevolent secret society, but it was not without its flaws. His parents, Jerry and Dendra Maplecourt, used to be a part of the organization before he was born, and his mother left as soon as she knew she was pregnant with him, fearing for her child’s safety. His father stayed and used his long haul trucker job as an excuse to further the work of the group, sometimes coming home looking worse for wear, but nothing a few bandaids and some Tylenol couldn’t fix. While his father was away, his mother would teach him some of the things she used to know, things she had to know, when she was still working alongside his father in this. Some of it was disguises, false personas, and the art of beguiling. Some of it was peacemaking tactics and how to recognize one of their own. A good lot of it was running through the various ways to send and decipher secret messages, since they would change it up all the time. 

She was raising him to become the next generation of this society, this unbroken chain, as her parents did for her, but did he really want that?

There would be time to think about that tomorrow. At this point in the night, he was ready to give it a rest and just sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took a good long week or so break from this because I was not having a very good week- having a terrible one, really- and made some decisions. Like role reversal, and basing the Unbroken Chain off of VFD from "A Series of Unfortunate Events," and working on this one for several days, and I think choosing a random word each day from several prompts is what burnt me out a bit. I did ALHFMF in thirty days because it was a set prompt list and I had fewer things to be busy with (read: didn't have friends to hang out with once a week) so I'm going to find a one week prompt list and go from there, making it align with the story of course.
> 
> A big part of what I do is because I enjoy it, but it's hard to enjoy things in a bad mental state, so if you're finding yourself not enjoying the things you used to, take a break and focus on fixing what might be wrong, then come back and see if it helped.
> 
> I love and appreciate every single one of you for reading this, and your comments and kudos make my day.
> 
> And, hey. Just a reminder: February is almost over. Have you changed your calendars yet? I know I haven't. It's still January in Pusheen Land. I should prolly get on that.
> 
> <3 ya!


End file.
